


Club Crash

by vase



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chloenette, F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February 2017, Meet-Ugly, Oneshot, Romance, chlonette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 21:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9787118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vase/pseuds/vase
Summary: Marinette had been eager to enjoy Jagged Stones concert, but after finding herself in the mosh-pit and having accidentally cracked a stranger on the nose, she's faced with someone she hasn't seen in three years: Chloe Bourgeois.Written for Femslash February.





	

Marinette’s heart was racing, her chest burned with each breath and her face was flushed as sweat flew off her skin with every swift, powerful motion.

Jagged Stone concerts were definitely exciting and taxing places to be.

Flashing lights, fire and smoke filled the stage and flooded the club. The heavy riffs and screeches of Jagged’s guitar were so mighty they ran through the ground, up the toes and into people’s heads just as the sound hit!

Marinette felt body after body bounce off of her in a chaotic mass of movement as they all tried to dance and fight for floor space at the same time.

‘ _Mosh pits,_ _whose idea was that_?' Marinette thought bemusedly, even as she threw herself into dancing amidst the suffocating crowd. Whoever's idea it was, she couldn't do a thing about it now, not with Alya having snuck off to get pictures, while Adrien and Nino vanished into the sea of bodies all around her.

“Rocking solo!” Jagged cheered.

His shout was met with a roar of approval and Marinette’s concerns faded as she threw herself into the sound of thrashing strings and cheering.

Only to hear a crack and a high pitched screech.

Marinette’s knuckles stung and she spun around to see someone in a yellow hoodie being slammed and squished between the other mosh goers as they clutched their face, blood streaming over their hands.

“Oh gods!” Marinette cried as the person she’d struck slammed into a dance who got to close and nearly doubled them over. People were starting to stare and the guilt was churning Marinette up inside.

Just as someone shouted and the shoving grew, Marinette threw herself forward and wrapped her arm around the victim of her blunder. She shouted, “I am so sorry!” while dragging them through the crowd and out the entrance to the pit. The person in the yellow hoodie muttering curses and hissing with each breath every step of the way.

“I’m sorry, I’ll get you some ice!” Damn her clumsiness, this is why Marinette didn’t dance, ‘ _Alya_!’ she thought, almost wishing she could blame her friend for this catastrophe.

* * *

It had taken more than a little shoving and coaxing, through her stream of apologies, to find a somewhat quiet place in the club. She’d guided the other woman way up the back of the club, down a hallway and sat her down on a box right next to the storage room.

Marinette pulled out a cloth to try and dab away the blood, but they grasped it from her and then said something that Marinette couldn't quite catch.

"What?"

"Ice," they said more forcefully through their injury

Rushing back, Marinette had done up the black leather jacket she’d chosen to fit the club’s rough aesthetic in a bid to look a bit more mature. Thankfully, like all good clothes, the jacket could pull double duty. The staff had been very surprised when Marinette had explained she was trying to help someone she’d hit, but had given her ice all the same. Clutching a cloth filled with ice cubes in her hands, Marinette returned to where she’d left the woman.

Marinette found the woman still hunched over and trying to wipe the blood from her face and hands with a now thoroughly ruined cloth.

Shaking her head, Marinette said, “That’s not the best way to do that, let me help, please, I am sorry.”

What she got in return was the hooded woman half looking up at her, face still hidden by her hoodie and the dim lighting. Finally they spat, “Stop apologising and just go back already.”

“Not until I’ve at least helped, gods you’re a mess,” Marinette said. Squatting down and watching the other woman lean back, something rumbling in her throat before she winced and clutched her nose again.

“Fuck, it hurts!” she said, in a whiny trill that somehow rang familiar to Marinette, but she just couldn’t place it.

Shaking her head, Marinette said, “Here, press this down on your nose, gently.”

Taking the cloth she pressed it up against her face, still muttering angry curses and vocalisation of anger. “The bloods ruined my pants, as if the sweat and grinding meat didn’t though!”

Letting the woman vent, Marinette slipped out a small water bottle she had strapped to her back and pulled out a second cloth. “Let me clean your hands off, sorry I can’t do much about the pants, that material may look great but…” Marinette trailed off as she took the woman’s tanned hand into her own.

“But they stain like nothing else,” the woman said, “You’d think tailors could fix that but apparently not.”

“We’re trying,” Marinette said, chuckling a little as she used the damp cloth to wipe off the woman’s left hand, careful of her decidedly long and deadly looking nails. As she cleaned and listened to the other woman breath in deep and angrily, Marinette worried. ‘ _Gods I am such an idiot, I broke her nose, ruined her pants and I know that brand, that’s top of the line designer stuff. She’s probably gonna want my head_!’ To say she felt like a heel, would not be inaccurate.

“I am really, really sorry about this, I swear it was an accident,” Marinette said again.

“What did I just say about apologising idiot, show some backbone,” the woman snapped from behind the cloth. “This was bound to happen in a dive like this. I’m just amazed it was an accident,” she added, as if both angered and amused at the same time.

“What does that mean?” Marinette asked. Gods why couldn’t she place that voice, even with a broken nose and a cloth smothering it, she was sure it was familiar.

“Hah, you didn’t even notic- ow!” The woman said, raising her voice having evidently been bad idea.

“No I didn't notice, what am I missing, miss?” Marinette asked.

Rolling her shoulders, the woman pulled her now clean hand away and tossed back her hoodie, revealing a mass of shiny blonde hair done up in a ponytail and a scathing set of icy blue eyes that-

“Chloe!” Marinette screeched, jumping backwards.

She had barely seen hide or hare of Chloe since they switched classes a few years earlier. Marinette's brief relationship with Adrien had, if anything, made Chloe even less omnipresent in her life. With finals having come and gone, graduation on the horizon and other life dramas, she’d barely spared the blonde a thought save when Chloe showed up in the news with her father.

“Quick as ever Marinette Dupain-cheng,” Chloe said, her usual tone ruined by her broken nose and the fact her face was caked in drying blood. Seemingly losing interest in Marinette, Chloe looked swapped hands on the ice pack and glared down at her bloody right hand. “Shit, you really did a number on me. Pass back the cloth and leave already,” Chloe said, waving her right hand, which Marinette noticed had much smoother, shorter nails.

Bristling at Chloe’s dismissive words, Marinette just clutched the wet cloth tighter and snapped, “And how are you going to clean yourself while holding the ice pack?”

Eyes witching, Chloe glowered and said, “Either help or leave, I’m not in the mood for this.”

Stomping her foot, Marinette strode forward and snatched up Chloe’s bloodied hand, “Brat,” she muttered.

“You broke my nose,” Chloe countered, “I am being phenomenally understanding, or maybe that’s the cheap wash this place considers wine.”

“You bought wine at a rock concert, really?” Marinette asked, snickering.

Chloe shrugged, “Tried to, didn’t make this place feel like any less of a stinking den of sweat and booze.”

“Why did you even come here?” Marinette asked, “Adrien told me you hated rock music.”

“Ah,” Chloe hummed, “Still talking to Adri-kins I see, I thought you two broke up?”

“We did, but we’re still friends,” Marinette said. The sadness and bitterness had ebbed over the years and holding a grudge against Adrien was a little beyond Marinette, he was too damn nice for his own good. “I actually came here tonight with him, Alya and Nino, but they all-

“Disappeared?” Chloe cut in. “Yes, he did the same to me, he’s far to wrapped up in this nonsense and easily distracted.

Scrunching up her nose, Marinette wiped the last of the blood from Chloe’s hand and asked, “He brought you here?”

Giving off a little 'hmph!' Chloe said, “Yes, but we split when he wanted to see you all. For some reason he thinks we wouldn’t get along,” and of all things, Chloe winked at her.

“Pfft, and where would he get an idea like that I wonder?” Marinette said, half-jokingly but there was a real edge in her voice.

Chloe shrugged, “Who can say? I actually thought you were aiming when you got me, imagine my surprise when you turned around and tried to help, like a sap.”

Hands on her hips Marinette said, “Traditionally this is where someone says thank you.”

“For breaking my nose and cleaning up your own mess?” Chloe said, arching an elegant eyebrow.

“It was an accident!”

“Yes, I’m sure you’ve never thought of hitting me,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes, “Come on, admit it, you’ve been wanting to bloody my nose for years.”

A vibration of irritation rant through her frame and Marinette snapped, “Gods you’re so insufferable, you make me wish I had done it on purpose!”

Chloe merely tilted her head to one side, and Marinette could easily picture her smirking as she said, “Well I’m sure my lawyers will be interested in hearing that.”

Marinette’s eyes flew open and for a moment she went numb, only for Chloe to let out a shuddering laugh before clutching the ice-pack to her face again. “Relax,” she seethed, “I'm not going to sue you over this. Though I do want to say fuck you regardless, this tanks my plans.”

“What, why?”

Chloe arched her eyebrows and said, “Because now I'll have to cancel all of them this week just to stay out of the public's eye. And, more than likely, I'll need surgery.”

“Do you really expect me to take that seriously?” Marinette asked.

“The surgery or the suing?” Chloe asked, looking genuinely confused as she glanced up at Marinette.

“Both!”

Chloe simply shrugged, “I have no evidence and I doubt “Mayors Daughter Uses Wealth to Try and Ruin Classmate” would make a positive headline for my father.” Her tone, once dripping with derision and smarm seemed more numb and dull than Marinette recalled. It was still dismissive, but somehow less than what it was before.

“You’re different,” Marinette said, half squinting as she looked over the other woman. Chloe hadn’t changed much. She was taller, sharper, and maybe a little bit more... restrained than Marinette recalled. It seemed like something had filled her edge by a small amount.

Chloe just half looked at her then back down at the ice-pack on her face, “It’s been years since we last butted heads,” Chloe waved vaguely at Marinette’s outfit. “I mean look at you, you’re definitely rocking that matured rebel woman whose equal parts dangerous as she is safe. It’s pretty stark compared to that sugary good girl routine.”

“It wasn’t a routine,” Marinette said, even as she blushed just a little at how accurately Chloe had gauged her outfit’s intent. “I thought you said you weren’t in the mood for our usual crap.”

“Somehow you give me energy,” Chloe said sarcastically.

' _Well if that's the case,_ ' Marinette thought, looking over Chloe’s baggy yellow hoodie, ruined designer white pants and smirked. “At least I can dress for the occasion, Miss hoodie and designer pants.”

Chloe gave a haughty huff, “Adrien said I was being dreadfully listless or something like that, and that I needed to get out with ‘real people’ hah! He’s a dear, but Adrien wouldn’t know the real world until it drove its fist into his gut.”

“Adiren hasn’t had it easy,” Marinette said firmly, voice dead of inflection as she stared at Chloe and found the blue eyed woman’s gaze matching hers.

“He hasn't,” Chloe conceded, holding up a hand as if in surrender or to forestall Marinette from speaking. “But Gabriel would kill anyone and everyone if it meant protecting Adrien from the bad things out there. He’d never let Adrien be tainted by the real world and turn out like him. That’s what he loved about his wife, she was sweet, and kind and soft…” Chloe trailed off and Marinette almost found herself wanting to back away.

Somehow that had felt intensely personal and she wasn’t sure she had a right to it. How Chloe’s voice had grown so soft and almost sweet but rough, as if talking through pain at words like tainted and kindness, before going cold and almost angry at ‘soft’.

“Chloe,” Marinette started, only to jump back as Chloe rose to her feet and threw her free arm wide with a devilish grin on her face.

“Adrien had a controlling parent but a charmed view of the world. He’s like, he’s like a maiden in a tower!” Chloe said voice growing high in excitement, “I can't believe I never thought of it, he's a dainty daughter in a film!”

“What on earth are you talking about” Marinette asked, a little grateful for the distraction.

Chloe spun around and said, “Oh come on, you must have seen them," her voice growing saccharine. "The lovely little ladies, belle of the ball, chased, adored or hated for their sweetness; the beloved and protected child. That’s Adrien! He’s the princess in the films who walks amongst the commoners and dances in the workers deck of the ship. Who needs the court, or politics, when you have the real people, who know how to have real fun, and certainly won’t fake it just for you!”

Chloe wobbled back. Marinette rushed to her side and slipped an arm around Chloe’s back, “You OK? How many heads do I have?”

“One big nosy head,” Chloe grumbled, “Honestly I love him to death but…”

“You feel like he hasn’t seen the world you have, and that he’s not really a part of the regular world either?” Marinette wagered.

Chloe’s eyes shot to her, a faint look of alarm in her eyes even as she pushed Marinette away with a weak shove. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, always so observant.”

Watching Chloe sit back down and throw her head back as she pressed the ice to her nose again, Marinette folded her arms and spoke. “I don’t think you’re entirely right, but- I can see where you’re coming from.”

“Us, seeing eye to eye, now I know I’m drunk on this place’s poor excuse for wine, or concussed. Marinette, before the blood flows into my brain and drowns it, listen to me. Tell them I want a closed casket funeral because of what you did to my nose,” Chloe said with a lazy wave.

“You’re not dying, just sore,” Marinette assured.

“I will die if this looks as bad as it feels,” Chloe muttered, scowling down at her nose.

Marinette opened her mouth and then closed it. She remembered Chloe’s words from earlier, how she couldn’t be seen looking less than perfect. How she’d spoken so harshly of a kind and soft person for being just that. “I imagine you have pretty high standards to meet, clothes, looks, that kind of thing, that’s probably why Adrien thinks it’s all so fake.”

Chloe huffed, “Of course its fake, everyone’s life is, most people are just too dumb to realise it.”

Leaning back against the wall, Marinette said, “Is that how you justified it? The way you treated people?”

“Clean my face or leave Marinette Dupain-Chang, I didn’t come here to be moralised at,” Chloe snapped.

Squatting down, Marinette took up the damp, bloodied cloth and found a clean section. Looking up at Chloe she could see how her make-up was missing in places to reveal bags under her eyes. She gave Chloe a small smile, and said, “I’ll clean your face, but you can’t stop me moralising.”

“Spare me,” Chloe muttered, even as she took the ice-pack away and let Marinette’s hands approach her face.

Seeing how Chloe’s sharp shoulders were tight, Marinette decided a tactical withdrawal and then approaching from another angle might be best. Why she was doing this at all she couldn’t quite grasp, but seeing the layers of Chloe being pulled away, whether by booze, pain, or time was… it was certainly something.

She pressed the cloth to the furthest specks of blood on Chloe’s cheeks and gently wiped as she looked over the blonde’s dark and swollen nose and suppressed a wince. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring Sabrina, you two seemed inseparable,” Marinette said softly.

“She left,” Chloe said bluntly, and in such a way that Marinette could guess that Chloe had seen through her attempts at subtly.

“Friends drift apart, I heard you two ended up in different classes,” Marinette said.

“Don’t lie, you know why she left,” Chloe said, wincing and jerking her head back from the cloth.

“I can guess,” Marinette said. Placing the cloth at the base of Chloe’s full, and now blood-covered lips. Marinette wondered if Chloe had something done to make them look so full. “It got too hard helping you didn’t it, and she had other—“

“Other friends,” Chloe finished, “New friends who didn’t take so much work, even if they didn’t pay her as well.”

“You don’t pay for friends, Chloe,” Marinette said. Wiping the last drops of blood from Chloe’s lips. She watched as Chloe’s tongue ran across them in a smooth motion.

Chloe snorted in response, then threw her head back and screeched out in pain.

Snatching up the ice-pack Marinette offered it to Chloe but the blonde just shook her head.

“If it helps,” Marinette said gently, “I think I just broke some blood vessels, you probably won’t need surgery.”

“Hmph, let my PR people worry about that,” Chloe snapped.

Shrugging, Marinette returned to cleaning Chloe’s face and tried to get them back on, she wished she could say track, but trying to trace back their conversation Marinette wasn’t sure it had even been on one.

However before she could, Chloe spoke up and asked, “So, why did you break it off with Adrien? Find something you preferred, perhaps got a different type than expected?” She said, it was almost husky, Marinette thought.

“No, we just…” Marinette bit her lip as she dabbed a particularly swollen part of Chloe’s nose, but the blonde didn’t even wince as her eyes bored into Marinette’s. Finally, Marinette sighed and said, “I built Adrien up to be a lot of things, which he was in many ways… but not all of them. And frankly, I think I was a bit too much for him. Adrien’s all about embracing freedom and free love with no restrictions, I’m a bit-“

“Of a control freak?” Chloe wagered, tilting her head to the side and chuckling.

“Not,” Marinette said firmly, “How I was going to phrase it.”

“I bet you make lists in your sleep.”

“I never knew you were such a nerd, quoting RENT at me and all, does that make you a mess?” Marinette asked cheekily.

Chloe actually blinked and pulled back just a bit before pursing her lips and lowering her eyelashes into a half lidded stare. "I was always more of a tiger, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

"Keep telling yourself that, diva,” Marinette retorted as she continued wiping off Chloe’s nose. Pursing her lips Marinette asked, “Why do you care why I broke up with Adrien?”

Chloe merely shrugged, limply at that. “Curiosity, boredom, you had such an obsession with him I thought it might be interesting at least, especially given he was so dramatic about it.”

“He was?” Marinette had thought it had been a mutual thing. Well, not so much mutual as both of them trying to break up with each other and dancing around the subject until their friends broke down the walls and made them talk it out.

“Oh yes, though maybe this was before it happened, but Adrien was quite a mess, all “What did I do wrong?” and “How could I be so cruel to a sweet girl like that?” and so on,” Chloe said. “He made a big fuss about having someone else on a pedestal that no one could possibly reach and how it was unfair." Hand pressed against her chest Chloe said, “I told him he was being stupid and that there’s nothing wrong with high standards.”

“That sounds like something you’d say, honestly I’m surprised you haven’t called Adrien yet,” she finally settled on, not wishing to broche the Sabrina topic again so soon.

“Pulling him from the grinding, sweat-soaked masses is like pulling teeth,” Chloe said without her usual bite. “Besides, he only dragged me here out because of  a guilty conscious,” she added, the words dying almost as soon as they left her throat as Chloe’s breaths grew just a little tighter and closer together.

‘ _She didn’t meant to tell me that_ ,’ Marinette thought, dabbing away a few new droplets of blood. Knowing Chloe would not take pity kindly, and because lying was outright out of the questions, Marinette said. “So what are you going to do about it?” it seemed like a good question. I there was one thing Marinette would acknowledge about Chloe, it was that the other girl, or woman really, was tenacious. She'd always been totally unafraid to pursue what she wanted, often with no thought to the cost or method, but still.

“Do? Nothing. I can’t exactly lock my old friend up like some song-bird, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Besides,” she added more sharply, “He has managers and the like to look after him, and you all as… friends. No accounting for taste I suppose.”

It was a weak barb, even for Chloe. Marinette had caught the subtext however; Adrien didn’t ‘need’ Chloe and she had no intention of trying to hold onto her last remaining friend. Somehow that was, incredibly sad.

“Do not give me that pathetic look, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe said, her voice was firm, like her old confidence was returning. Accompanying it was her usual tone, now that her nose was clearing up, though Marinette could see it swelling. She threw her head back and grinned, “Besides, I’ll have more than enough to keep me busy once I get into the real world. All this school nonsense and everyone’s over sensitivity will be a thing of the past.”  

Marinette had no idea what Chloe planned to do when she left school, she’d always just assumed the blonde would try and land someone rich and live off them. It seemed she’d assumed wrong there, or if she was right, there was likely going to be a lot more to such an arrangement than just looking sexy.

Seeing no cause to give sound to those straying thoughts, Marinette instead grabbed an entirely different conversational tether and said. “I just think it’s sad that you two would-“

Chloe huffed, and rather blatantly rolled her eyes at that.

“I do, I do think it’s sad that two old friends would drift apart like that, even if one of them is you,” Marinette said simply. “And that’s not even getting into how messed up your ideas of friendship are, buying Sabrina’s affection, being useful to Adrien, friends help each other, but it’s not done like that.”

“Gods you are putting that leather to shame with your heartfelt claptrap, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe said, folding her arms over her chest as if waiting Marinette’s reaction.

“Hey, the jackets done up, that means I’m being cool and mature biker lady, not wild and reckless biker lady,” Marinette countered with a smirk. "Come on, I'm trying to help you here, but if you need time we can go grab something to eat."

However, it seemed Chloe did not want to let sleeping dogs lie, as she rose to her feet and actually stood taller Marinette by just a little. She bared her teeth and spoke, “You're too soft, you’re too damn soft, do you know that?” she said, throwing her arms out wide as she strode forward.

“I've seen you Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I’ve seen you when you’re angry, how far you can go, and how deep you can cut with words alone. You’re not soft like Adrien, slippery as Nino, or restrained like Alya. I know how you don’t take anyone’s shit, least of all mine, so how can you be that strong and still such a fucking doormat? Do you even grasp what the real world’s going to do to you with you and those grand ambitions of yours?!”

Marinette blinked, but didn’t back up, she was long since passed being intimidated by Chloe. However, for a moment, she was truly lost for words. Her mind raced as she tried to put together everything she’d learnt or guessed about Chloe during this little chat. The music from the concert was hitting her ears, invading their private sanctum, but she did not want to break the spell just yet!

A faint twitch ran across her face before her lips thinned and she met Chloe’s almost rabid glare with her own and answered. “You know what Chloe, you’re right,” she started, viciously and coldly, just like Chloe so clearly wanted with the way her eyes sparked. “The world is unfair,” Marinette said, her tone calm and smooth, “Horrible people get away with the worst things imaginable, a lot worse than you ever did. Liars and cheats can get rewarded, and if you aren’t just as vicious and harsh as the one’s you’re up against, they’ll crush you.”

Marinette continued to hold Chloe’s gaze as she spoke, seeing the almost frantic look in her eyes. “That probably played a part in your behaviour, were we practise? Did you see us as competition? Or did we just rankle you because we didn’t play in a way you understood, or something else?” Marinette shrugged. “I don’t know, and frankly, unless you feel like telling me of your own accord, I don’t care, the past is past.”

“That’s bullshit and you now it! I hurt people, lots of them, because I couldn’t read them, because I thought they were all too soft, because they needed to know who was in charge. I,” Chloe bit her lip, “I hurt you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, because you irritated me, to prove a point, because you were a pretty little threat and a million other reasons. Don’t pretend you suddenly think that’s all OK,” Chloe seethed. “Don’t you dare try and pretend it didn’t happen or that I can just be forgiven.”

Impassive, Marinette said, “It did happen, and it hurt, before Alya it hurt more than I would care to admit at times.” Marinette let out a low sigh, “But you know what else? You were a kid, a vicious one maybe, but a kid who can grow like any of us. So yeah, I’m never going to forget what happened, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see who you are now, or what made you who you were then. It makes nothing OK, and no matter what you might think about how only the worst thrive and survive, there are people who prove you wrong. I,” Marinette stressed as she stepped up closer to Chloe, their low breaths brushing each other’s lips. “I will prove you wrong.”

Chloe was silent, a brief shudder seemed to run through her before she smirked even though Marinette was sure it stung. “Fine be that way, I suppose it’s worked out for you so far, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but don’t think it can carry you forever.”

“You… really love saying my name don’t you?” Marinette said, as if struck by lightning. Her synapses re-ordered that statement to priority-one rather than the hundred other things she could have said.

Amazingly Chloe simply said, “It rolls off my tongue.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, “I bet it does.”

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, “If you’re looking for a quick hate-fuck I’ll have to refuse, my head’s still ringing.”

Marinette was snorting and laughing at the absurdity of it all as she said, “and here I expected you to be the pillow princess type!”

“Hah!" Chloe’s head snapped back as the blonde began laughing with her, it was high but rough and somehow faded, like it was unfamiliar.

By the time their mirth died, Chloe was clutching her nose again and Marinette gently ran her fingers up Chloe’s free hand and said, “Come on, this place is making you miserable and I lost the concert mood the moment I broke your face. Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m not after a pity party, let alone pity sex, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Besides, I can call my driver,” Chloe said. But given she wasn’t getting out her phone and looking almost expectantly at her.

Marinette smiled and gently tapping the blonde’s side she chuckled and said, "Hey now, I’m a gentle-woman,” Marinette winked, “Besides, you can ride my bike.”

“Oh gods, you actually have a bike don’t you?” Chloe said, a rueful grin on her face.

Marinette decided she rather liked the expression.

“What can I say? I wanted to complete the look and Jagged just insisted,” Marinette said with a chuckle.

Chloe shook her head, “You’re incorrigible.” She pulled Marinette’s hand up and pressed her lips to her fingertips “I know it isn’t this simple but, I am sorry, and if I look ugly right now, just remember it’s your fault!”

“You don’t. Now, shall we go?” Marinette asked, sliding her hand into Chloe’s.

They cut through the crowded club, Marinette only slowing a moment to wave at Jagged as he began another solo.

“Ugh, crowds,” Marinette muttered. She and Chloe burst from the club, only to be greeted by Jagged’s legion of fans and reporters flashing cameras. Marinette glanced at Chloe and saw the other woman had already pulled her hood up and had her head down. Her grip on Marinette’s hand was tightening and so she looked at the blonde and asked, “Can you run?”

Chloe didn’t even answered, practically kicking off the steps leading into the club she charged into the street, Marinette just a second behind her.

“My bike’s this way!” Marinette called. She pulled ahead and guided Chloe around the crowds and down the street until she spied her lovingly cared for bike sitting comfortable under a streetlight just as pristine as she left it. 

“It’s like a Ladybug,” Chloe muttered.

Marinette slipped on and passed the blonde a helmet and said, “I thought the same thing, I named her Tikki.”

“Heh, dork,” Chloe murmured into Marinette’s ear. As she wrapped her arms around the smaller woman and squeezed, Chloe uttered, “firm” in a teasing tone.

“Like you aren’t a geek, I know about your cosplay,” Marinette said, running a gloved hands across Chloe’s in a gentle motion.  

Revving up the engine, Marinette asked, “Now then, where to?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> This is my contribution to Femslash February, I was inspired to try and present something to the Miraculous Ladybug fandom after seeing Breeeliss's posts on the matter, so I hope this was a fun read!
> 
> I'd like to thank Samantha-Girlscout for editing this piece, their advice was incredibly helpful and I highly recommend their Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction. 
> 
> Like many of my ideas involving Chloe, this also turned into something of a character study with Marinette offering and outsider perspective on her former rivals world view. To say that she caught Chloe on an off day would also be pretty accurate, which played a part in her opening up as much as she did.
> 
> If you have any questions, comments or critique, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you as fast as I can :)


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